Police find 3-wheel vehicles meet a need

The Word From | Durham

DURHAM -- Cpl. C.C. Fisher can't conduct any high-speed chases behind the wheel of his official Durham Police vehicle, but if you're a teenager skipping school or a dog-walker brazenly flouting the city's leash law, beware.

Fisher's rig is a gasoline-powered, slow-and-steady three-wheeler that looks more like a glorified golf cart than a squad car. But the vehicle, called a Cushman, can squeeze onto pathways where a regular car cannot go.

Fisher and the vehicle can often be found puttering along on the American Tobacco Trail, a six-mile stretch of marked pavement from downtown Durham to the Streets of Southpoint mall area. Fisher is one of a handful of Durham police officers in the department's park patrol unit responsible for patrolling this popular trail and the rest of Durham's 20 miles of trailways.

The vehicle is slow -- 35 to 40 miles per hour, tops -- and has the whiny whir of a golf cart or motorized wheelchair. Its single-front-wheel configuration forces Fisher to turn slowly, lest the vehicle teeter precariously.

"It's not built for speed," Fisher says.

But it certainly serves a purpose. Fisher and other officers who ride in this vehicle and on bicycles, along with those traffic services officers who occasionally patrol on Harley-Davidson motorcycles, believe they're a crime deterrent.

"If we weren't out here, it would be a different environment," Fisher said. "The criminal element likes to be where the police are not."

Fisher considers this community policing. The trail is the community, and its members are the joggers, bicyclists, dog-walkers and stroller-pushing moms who use it every day.

At the wheel, Fisher tools along with his head on a swivel. To his right, he examines the back of a convenience store. To his left, he eyes the back yards of homes in the Woodcroft neighborhood. Up just a little further, he hears the distant din of children's voices from an elementary school playground.

There isn't much crime on the trail, but Fisher and other officers do occasionally respond to medical emergencies -- heat exhaustion or heart attacks.

For the most part, Fisher polices infractions that, while minor, can affect the quality of life of people who use the trails.

One example: Fisher often admonishes people who let their dogs roam free -- a violation of the city's leash law. Also, Fisher spends a good bit of time corralling teenagers riding dirt bikes and other motor vehicles prohibited on the trails.

And then there's the open container law. Fisher and other patrol officers often hand out citations if they catch people sipping from that oversized can of Budweiser they just bought at the corner store.

The trails pass by several city parks, and Fisher occasionally happens upon teenagers engaging in some frisky business in the back seat of the family station wagon.

"One time, I was on my dirt bike, and I rode right up to their car, and they didn't hear anything until I tapped on the window," he recalled. "That scared the mess out of them."